Receiving the Evcharist: Worm and Le Seul XVI

Cue the spooky Halloween music, I’m baaaaaaaaaaaaaaaack. Today’s pairing is Worm’s Bluenothing and Une Une Année’s Le Seul XVI. Drink from the cup of heresy.

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The Tunes: Worm’s Bluenothing

Ah, Worm: the band so nice we reviewed them twice! The last time Worm put out an album, we had a hilarious miscommunication among the staff here, but you know what? I stand by it, because I think Corey and I can agree that Foreverglade was good enough to warrant it being reviewed twice, and so when I saw Bluenothing on our list, I knew I had to jump at the chance to talk about it (Corey, you’re welcome to write the full review this time!). The four-track mini-album contains two new pieces of music and two cut tracks from the Foreverglade sessions, but even the leftovers from the Foreverglade sessions are miles ahead of what everyone else is doing. In fact, the monumental eleven-and-a-half-minute title track to this EP was supposed to be the closer for Foreverglade, and a large part of me kinda wishes it was, because it is an absolute joy to listen to. Formidably sludgy, ignorantly heavy, with washes of mournful synth and organ and the same absolutely stunning lead guitar work that made Foreverglade a standout release for me, this track and its companion piece “Centuries of Ooze II” feel just as impactful as anything that made it onto the album. The new material, however, shows a very different side of the band, with a much heavier emphasis on symphonic black metal than deathdoom. However, worm once again nail it. “Invoking the Dragonmoon” melds spooky synth work and ethereal atmosphere with delicious 80’s shred lead guitar, and “Shadowside Kingdom” rips forward with blast beats and naked, cold black metal aggression, standing in stark contrast to the moist, muggy death metal that characterized Phase 1 of the band. But the most important thing is that it is supremely awesome nonetheless. If “Shadowside Kingdom” marks the end of the Foreverglade era of the band and the start of something new, then I will pause for a moment to mourn but then I’m right back on the train with the rest of the swamp lads.

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The Booze: Une Année’s Le Seul XVI

Another one out of Hubbard’s Cave Brewery, this time courtesy of the Une Année side of things, Le Seul XVI is, unsurprisingly, another entrant in their Le Seul series of fruited wild sours, this one being the blackberry lemon variety. Truth be told, there were a lot of options to choose from in this series but I ended up going with the blackberry lemon one because I like my sours *sour*, and Jesus is this sour. I literally feel the sour on the sides of my tongue. I’m making the Warhead candy face as I’m typing this. Between the ripe berries, the lemon and the wild yeast, tart is the name of the game here, but I love a bright, funky sour. This is the brightest and funkiest I’ve had in a long time. The sweetness of the berries is immediately up front, but it fades right away into slightly bitter lemon peel and plenty of wild yeasty funk on the finish. It might be a little aggressive for some tastes, but there is plenty of depth of flavor here, and the more you drink of it the better prepared you are for what’s coming in the next sip. Overall: delicious.

Keep it creepy.

– Ian